Hyeon Chung stunned Novak Djokovic at the 2018 Australian Open (Image: Getty)
Hyeon Chung announced himself to the tennis world when he was just 21 years old.
The South Korean tennis star stunned at the 2018 Australian Open 2018, storming into the semi-final.
But his career was derailed by injuries, and he has since dropped out of the world’s top 1000. However, he finally ended a six-year wait for a title this weekend.
Seven years ago, Chung was tipped to be one of tennis’ brightest young prospects. He won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in 2017, beating eventual top-10 stars and Andrey Rublev.
The tournament, created for players aged 21 and under, has since been won by the likes of and , who went on to become world No. 1s and multi-Grand Slam champions.
Chung followed up his Next Gen Finals victory with an incredible run at the Australian Open just two months later. Aged just 21, he upset world No. 4 to set up a meeting with Djokovic.
At the time, Djokovic was a six-time champion at Melbourne Park. The Serb was returning from injury but Chung ended his run, handing Djokovic his first straight-set defeat at the Australian Open since 2007.
Hyeon Chung won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals (Image: Getty)
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He went on to become the tournament’s youngest male semi-finalist in eight years but retired from his match against due to foot blisters.
The Korean star cracked the world’s top 20 but injuries soon derailed his career and he missed the French Open and , failing to build on his Australian Open form.
Chung has taken significant breaks from the sport ever since. Now aged 28, Chung returned from his latest injury layoff in September unranked but struggled to string wins together at ITF and Challenger level.
But his luck has finally changed, as he ended a six-year wait to lift a title at any level. After suffering back-to-back first-round exits at ITF events in Indonesia, Chung suddenly kicked into gear at the M25 in Bali last week.
He received a wildcard into the main draw and stormed through the tournament, dropping just one set across five matches to claim the trophy. Chung’s run culminated with a dominant 6-1 6-2 victory over British world No. 419 Giles Hussey.
It was revenge for his latest defeat in the M15 tournament in Bali, where Hussey beat Chung in the first round at the end of December.
The current world No. 1107 also got a big win over Frenchman Antoine Escoffier in the quarter-final. Escoffier was the top seed in Bali and is ranked just outside the world’s top 200.
While Chung is still a long way away from his 2018 Australian Open form, he will be able to take plenty of confidence from his latest title-winning triumph – his first since the 2019 Chengdu Challenger.